Any consensus on stubby antenna vendor?
 

Noticed a number of stubbies are avaialble, are they any different from one to another vendor?

Any loss of signal?

Had a stubby I purchased for my mazda on ebay...never had an issue with fit or signal

got mine at Helix.
looks great and no issues with radio reception

I'll chime in, as I don't think there's going to be any consensus. Most people don't seem to have any issue with signal degradation, so it basically comes down to cost and aesthetics.

For what it's worth, I absolutely love my 4" stubby from OutMotoring. My opinion judged it to be the best looking, and their service was top-notch with a competitive price.

Best of luck:thumbsup:

I dig my Craven Speed and haven't noticed any signal degradation (but get something else from them or get it from a local shop-shipping was ridiculous). The OutMotoring one is nice too but someone else in the local club had one and I wanted to be different.

I got mine from Alta, 4", no problems or loss of signal.. and it's the absolute quickest, easiest mod you can do.

I got a 2-inch Alta. No problems at all and the car cover fits perfectly!:thumbsup: :nod:

unless the thread size has changed from the 1st gen to 2nd gen MINI, i'd recommend getting an s2000 antenna from honda. darn cheap, looks factory, no change i could tell in radio reception.

I got mine from Minspeed.net, I like that they are the sponsor of Sunshine MINIs http://minspeed.net/R56SA.htm Super fast shipping, took like 2 days. Seems to have the best price I have seen and the owner is awesome, get it from Pete

I think I'm going with the CooperSport/Bimmian micro antenna. Available in anodized colours other than black and no logo (at least that I can see from the pictures on their site).

www.coopersport.com
www.bimmian.com

I had the Alta 4" stubby. Looks sharp, but I did have some loss of signal here in NYC, so I changed it back to the r.c. antenna.

Here are ours:
 

2" VERSION (My favorite!)

http://www.altaminiperformance.com/s...1192_large.jpg

4" Version (Also nice!)

http://www.altaminiperformance.com/s...1193_large.jpg

Where I live I have had little to no difference in reception. Some client in rural areas have noticed a change.

AS always, let me know if I can help in anyway further!

Just a quick question...outmotoring says their stubby wont work with the "sharkfin" style antenna base, but its in the 07+ section...any thoughts before i order one?

While I prefer of course you to order mine :wink::wink: he is referring to the 03-04 cars with NAV. The 07 car all uses the same base so no issue! Enjoy whichever antenna you choose!

The threads on the R53 antennas are different than those on the R56. Antennas for the two models are not interchangeable.

I like my ALTA 4" stubby antenna, it works great! :thumbsup:

I had the same issue with the 4" Cravenspeed. I, too, was forced to change back to the OEM. :sad:

I bought my 4" black anodized aluminum stubby on ebay for about 12 bucks including shipping. I love the look, and I've noticed no difference in reception.

Check the stud going into the antenna and base. Be sure it is equally spaced in both. Also, be sure that if you have an aftermarket head unit that the power to the antenna base has not been ignored. (unlikely of course on the R56 but happened a lot on the R53.

That's odd.
 

I'm surprised you would have a problem. I am pretty sure the alta is made of the same material as all the others...

yeah i dont have any problem with mine from minspeed. i have seen the others and they look to be the same as mine. granted i did change it out in like the first week or so, cause I didnt like the rc car look

It's not the Alta specifically, all stubbies should have the same problem.

I'm almost willing to bet there are actually very few manufacturers for the stubby antennas. It is very likely the majority of them are all manufactured by the same company and just rebranded for the various resellers.

Well I know ours isn't any one elses. But it certainly stands to reason that many are. One of our old machine shops we used to use, ripped us off madly and now sells a similar unit to anyone willing to send them a buck. So I understand completely where you are coming from.

Ours is 6061 aluminum with a screw in stud on the end. Then anodized to a bright glossy black luster. No magic, just a nice USA made piece.

Chat soon!

I've got the 4" Alta, no loss of signal here. :thumbsup:

The antenna's do cause you to lose signal. I tried the 4" and 2". Living inbetween Milwaukee and Chicago, you can definitely see the loss in signal. Before I could pull radio stations from each city, and now they fade out and are weaker. I estimate it reduces your range by about 10 miles over the standard antenna.